Spawn hits its third milestone with #150 in October and the slide in sales was temporarily halted with this issue hitting No. 1 in September. But most readers bought it for its novelty value, the monthly series was back down to No. 73 end of the year.

Ant Vol 2 #1August 2005I know all the attention is on the lady dominating the panel but shift your focus to the left of the image and you would notice a guy wearing a "spawn" sweater. Ant, written and illustrated by Mario Gully was first released in March 2004 under Arcana Studios and all 4 issues were collected as Volume 1. Volume 2 is by Image and there are a total of 11 issues, four of which contained Spawn appearances. Gully switched to Big City Comics after completing his run with Image for Volume 3 but only three out of six issues were ever printed.

Grim Tales from Down BelowSeptember 2005A web comic written and illustrated by Vinson Ngo under the pen-name of 'Bleedman'. I rather like the metallic silver-grey uniform of this Spawn.

The web comic was first created in December 2004. Violator appeared in Chapter 4 dated 1/7/2005 doing what Violator does well, threatening Grim Jr and the inhabitants. Spawn makes a heroic appearance in Chapter 5 (12/9/2005). Enlarged images here.

Ant Vol 2 #2September 2005What an absolutely lovely entry of Spawn in the the final page.

Spawn #150October 2005Spawn Hits #1 AgainThis is the start of the Armaggeddon story with a new writer at the helm - David Hine. His horror comic Strange Embrace caught the attention of Image.

And we have a new Spawn: Christopher the Boy Spawn. Christopher is a boy whose soul was sealed within Simmons' heart. He has taken the form of a young Hellspawn and uses his powers to help Simmons. He is the key to The Legion, never mind the really boring #150, it gets better as the story progresses. If you find it hard to grasp the story, well, don't take it too seriously, just enjoy the WWE tag-team format of Spawn(s) vs Everythings.

Ant Vol 2 #3November 2005The entire issue of #3 is dedicated to Spawn and Ant. There is of course a fight between Spawn and Ant, we have come to expect no less from our superheroes that they got to fight before they become friends. Then Ant/Hannah Washington has a flashback and realise that Al Simmons is her neighbour. Ant sitting astride on Spawn on the cover would make a lovely collectible except that it reminds me too much of Humbert Humbert and Dolores Haze. Want to see the larger image of HH Spawn and DH Ant? Click here.

Image ComicsNovember 2005Released only as a HC edition in November 2005. Thanks to 'flame 219' from the Spawn Message Board who clarified that the story contained inside this HC contains similarities but not an exact reproduction as that published in Image Comics Summer Special of July 2004.

Shadows of Spawn Vol 1December 2005This Manga Spawn aka Shadows of Spawn is translated from Japanese written and illustrated by Juzo Tokoro. Originally serialised from 1998 to 1999 under a monthly manga magazine Dengeki Comic Gao!, it was translated starting late 2005 into English. According to the Endcap in November 1999, there was supposed to be enough materials for four books but unfortunately, instead only three was ultimately published.

It featured Ken Kurosawa, a Japanese from Los Angeles with a very dated nickname of Double K. A proficient karateka and a thug for hire, he died and guess what......he became Ken Kurosawa the Spawn. Enlarged images of Kenny the Spawn.

Brian Haberlin BTW shares credit for the cover.

Kenny's raison d'etre? His sister Mariko.

The first appearance of a Spawn in this manga series however is not Mr Double K but Cheveyo and Mangler who appeared briefly in the initial pages, more of them in the second volume.

Image Holiday Special 2005December 2005Spawn appeared in a 9-page short story written and illustrated by Brian Haberlin. The emphasis is on illustration and not the writing, read it and you would understand why. The short story is republished in tpb - Spawn: New Flesh Collection released in December 2007. Image of the cover is from comicdb.com.